Adaptable, Unalterable
by Forsaken Tenshi
Summary: -ONE-SHOT- [Sesshoumaru x Kagome] Through chance in the Modern Era, Sesshoumaru and Kagome meet again. . . but not on the same terms as during the Feudal Era.


Disclaimer: Inuyasha characters do not belong to me.  
  
"___" = Dialogue  
  
'___' = Thoughts  
  
~o~o~o~ = Scene change  
  
Adaptable, Unalterable  
  
By Forsaken Tenshi  
  
He hissed in pain as yet another small, steel object embedded itself within his flesh. With the newest addition, the total tallied up to fifteen. Another one whizzed by his face, mere inches from his nose. The hot, sulfurous odor of gunpowder infused his keen sense of smell.  
  
'It shouldn't have been this way,' he thought bitterly, utilizing his speed. 'I should not have to be the prey. I should have been the predator.' He growled. He was tiring quickly.  
  
A peculiar feeling tickled his senses faintly. It was familiar, and it was coming from the place with the many lights, the city. He had felt it in only one small portion of his life- the Feudal Era. In spite of his high tolerance of pain, he was growing desperate. His injuries burned with incredible intensity, searing his flesh and numbing his limbs. Blindly, he raced towards that feeling- his last hope.  
  
~o~o~o~  
  
Higurashi Kagome lay on her stomach in her bed, her feet entwined in the air, reading a book. It had been seven years since she had reassembled the Shikon no Tama. The moment the last shard was melded into the characteristic sphere, Kagome had been transported back into her own time, the Shikon once again within her. She hadn't been able to say goodbye to Sango, Miroku, Shippou, Kirara, and most of all, Inuyasha.  
  
Inuyasha.  
  
Even now, there remained a dull ache in her heart every time she thought of him. She missed him. It was as easy as that. She simply missed him. Her first love.  
  
Kagome glanced up from her reading. "Inuyasha," she whispered, "I wonder what all of you are doing now. . ."  
  
She sighed. She couldn't go back. It was final.  
  
She suddenly sat up as she felt something pricking her senses.  
  
'Youki?' she thought confusedly. It was heading her way with astonishing speed.  
  
She jumped off her bed and grabbed her bow and quiver of arrows that lay, dust covered, on top of her bookshelf Secretly Kagome was glad that all the servants went to bed early. It would not do to have all of them see her fight a demon.  
  
The demon's aura stopped close to her. At her doorstep, to be exact. It stayed there.  
  
Kagome opened her window and jumped lightly onto a tree bough near her window. Years of watching Inuyasha and his elder half-brother, Sesshoumaru, battle had taught Kagome how to move about swiftly, silently, and efficiently. Sango was also of great help in teaching her the ways of stealth.  
  
So there she was, perched on a tree limb in blue silk pajamas, a bow and quiver of arrows strapped to her back, intently watching and listening for the demon. In the moonlight Kagome could only make out speckles of white through the multitude of leaves. A faint, hoarse rasping met her ears.  
  
Sighing silently to herself, she hopped down to the grass and crouched, ready to spring into action if need be. Noiselessly, she slid her bow off her back and notched an arrow in an easy to aim position. She inched forwards, feet hardly making a rustle in the dewy spring grass.  
  
She pulled her bow back tighter as the demon came into view.  
  
She froze.  
  
'Sesshoumaru?'  
  
There was no denying the hair, the clothing, the tail. He lay face down, blood spattered, his chest rising and falling weakly. He appeared to be unconscious. His hair was streaked with scarlet, and his clothes were drenched in a dark, glistening crimson. Three swords were strapped to his hip: the Tetsusaiga, the Tenseiga, and the Toukijin. His armor was nowhere to be seen.  
  
Kagome gazed down her walkway. The entire walkway glittered with a black liquid. Blood. His blood. Sesshoumaru's blood.  
  
"Oh Kami-sama," Kagome gasped. How was she going to help him? The only reasonable option was to stick him in one of the guestrooms as he recuperated. Possibly she would have to treat his wounds. She only hoped she could get him upstairs without injuring him further!  
  
Kagome delicately flipped him over. She then grasped him under his arms and slowly, carefully, tediously, pulled him into the house, up the stairs, and into a spare room. She eventually managed to heave him onto the bed.  
  
She eyed the floor. A bloody trail marked her progress, and his lifeblood stained her pajamas. She fought the urge to sigh unhappily. Besides, she had to tend to the demon lord's wounds.  
  
Kagome brought a first aid kit and placed it next to the dog demon, His eyes cracked open enough for him to recognize her.  
  
"You. . ." was all he managed, a small growl rumbling in his throat.  
  
She shushed him. "Yes, me. I need to tend to your wounds. I'll be right back. . . I need to get something."  
  
She walked to the bathroom and emerged with a damp, warm towel and a basin of lukewarm water. Sesshoumaru was again teetering on the edge of consciousness. She began the delicate process of cleaning his body.  
  
Hid blood continued oozing from his wounds- small circular puncture marks on his torso, legs, and arms.  
  
'They shot him,' she thought angrily, 'With anticoagulants and sedatives, evidently.' Already the sides of the mattress he was on was beginning to drip blood at the sides. His breath was becoming more and more labored.  
  
'I have to hurry,' Kagome thought as she raced to her room and pulled out a pair of surgical tweezers, bandages, a tin pan, and coagulant from her workbag. She raced back to his bedside.  
  
"Sesshoumaru?" she asked.  
  
He turned his head a fraction to face her.  
  
"I need to get the bullets out of you. . . the things they shot you with. It will hurt a lot. You ready?"  
  
He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. Kagome took this as his silent consent. She first injected the coagulant into his arm. She then gingerly inserted the tweezers into a wound and eased the small metallic object out. It had a small needle sticking out of it. She deposited it into the metal pan.  
  
Sesshoumaru fought a grimace as she pulled it out. All this was strange to him; he desperately wanted to sink his claws into her fragile neck but knew that she was the only one who he could possibly trust in a situation this dire. So his logic and will fought his instincts.  
  
Kagome sighted, relieved, as she extracted the last bullet and covered his wounds properly with bandaging. She wiped the beads of sweat off her face and looked worriedly at the demon lord. He was so pale, and barely breathing.  
  
'Blood,' she thought, 'He's lost too much blood.'  
  
She flew to her room, took out a scalpel from her bag, and shot back into his room. Kagome was, if anything, a good surgeon. Although her training was screaming for her to sterilize it, Kagome knew she had not time. She was thankful that she had cleaned it at the hospital before she left. She knelt down on the floor by his mattress, and, taking a preparatory breath, cleanly sliced her index finger with the small, sharp blade.  
  
The flesh remained white for a moment, then blood came welling out of it. Kagome reached up, parted his lips, and pressed her finger onto his teeth. She glanced, worried, at his fangs, but that was not important now. His life was important.  
  
Sesshoumaru had been battling the thick fogs of unconsciousness. He knew that if he gave up this time, there would be no way he would wake up.  
  
A warm trickle of liquid began to inundate his mouth, and he suckled it with all the strength he had left. Blood. Delicious, fresh blood. His mouth began working, striving to drink in as much as it could of this life- giving fluid.  
  
Kagome gasped as Sesshoumaru's mouth and lips began to nibble and suckle on her finger. She could feel her blood being drained steadily. But after a while she felt as if the skin had healed. There was no sensation of loss of blood.  
  
'Did something happen?' she thought, bewildered.  
  
"Itai!" she yelped as Sesshoumaru's fang pricked and reopened her skin. Her blood began to flow again.  
  
She tried to remove her finger from his mouth, but his teeth bit down upon it even as he continued sucking.  
  
"Sesshoumaru!:" she hissed, "I think you've had enough!" With a violent effort she managed to wrench her finger from the dog demon's lips. Sesshoumaru growled in response.  
  
Kagome rolled her eyes. "Okay, just because I let you have a sip of my blood does _not_ mean you have to go vampire on me and try to drink _all_ of my blood!" she snapped.  
  
A small "humph" escaped the dog demon. "I, Sesshoumaru, had no intention of drinking all of your filthy human blood," he said blearily.  
  
Kagome fumed. "Okay, youkai," she hissed, "I let you in my house, treat you, feed you in a sense, stay in one of my rooms, dirty up my house, and you still have the nerve to insult me?!?" She gave him an immensely intense glare that would have left anyone else, Naraku included, cowering in fear. Everyone except Sesshoumaru.  
  
But if her stare was scary, then the waves of energy radiating off her was terrifying. Sesshoumaru tensed his jaw in pain as her untainted magic washed over him, purifying his entire body.  
  
"Stop it, wench!" he barked through gritted teeth, suddenly roused from sleepiness.  
  
"Stop what?" she bit back, quite unaware of what she was doing to the demon.  
  
"You're purifying me!" he snarled, his entire body in pain.  
  
"Eh?" Kagome's indigence drained away in a split second, in addition to calming her flaring priestess powers. "I. . . I was?" Her eyes widened. "Gomen ne!" she apologized, "Daijobu?"  
  
Sesshoumaru eyed her with hidden disbelief. How was it possible for her to constantly switch her emotions like that? He decided not to think about it, as his head had begun pounding. Kagome saw him close his eyes, a faint grimace of pain flashing across his lips. Too tired to stay awake, Sesshoumaru drifted off into sleep.  
  
~o~o~o~  
  
Sesshoumaru opened his eyes and gazed about, unfocused on his surroundings. Kagome's face swam into view.  
  
"Hey," she said in a soft, soothing voice, "Sleep well? Why don't you change into something more comfortable? I'll have your clothes cleaned so that you can wear them later." She helped Sesshoumaru sit up, then went to the room's closet and found a white bathrobe after some digging. It was too large for her, but she had a liking for oversized bathrobes. It made her feel as if she had on robes for royalty rather than for the bath. She turned around to hand it to him but instantly spun back around towards the closet, her face as red as a ripe tomato.  
  
While she had been searching, the demon had stripped himself of all this clothing, leaving him standing stark naked. Kagome struck her hand holding the bathrobe out behind her. She felt him grasp it and in turn let go.  
  
She waited for a few seconds, then asked, "You done yet?"  
  
He answered with a curt "Yes." He had noted while he was changing that all his wounds had been cleaned and redressed.  
  
She turned around slowly, heat radiating from her face. Sesshoumaru was mildly amused at her embarrassment. Why should anyone be ashamed of their natural figures? Clothes were not a necessity; he could go without had he the urge to. But he had dignity, and dignity demanded him to keep a formal appearance. It was in keeping with his title, after all.  
  
"How long have I been asleep?" asked the dog demon.  
  
"All day. It is night again," she replied. She waited while he inspected the thick cotton yukata she had given him, which he now wore. "Um. . . Sesshoumaru? Do you want anything to eat?" asked Kagome, her voice slightly trembling.  
  
The demon lord raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You will not try to kill me?" he asked.  
  
Kagome shook her head, "No. I can't. You are the only connection I have now of the past."  
  
Sesshoumaru immediately understood. Nothing in this era that existed could remind one of those distant, wonderful times. The time when he was the feared Demon Lord of the Western Lands.  
  
"Fine," he conceded, cocking his head aristocratically.  
  
Kagome led the way to her kitchen, glad that during the day her servants had cleaned up the mess. Thankfully they had asked few questions, such as who was it and what happened. Kagome had replied it was an old friend that had gotten into an accident with his gun and had come here for help. They did not ask after. Kagome had made sure they knew not to disturb him.  
  
Upon reaching the kitchen, Kagome placed her and on the refrigerator door handle but was stopped by another hand wrapped tightly around her wrist. She glanced up.  
  
"What are you doing, miko?" Sesshoumaru growled.  
  
Kagome sighed. Had he really been isolated and not exposed to the technologies of this time? "It is a refrigerator, Sesshoumaru. It keeps food cold."  
  
His hand dropped from her wrist, the claws sliding against her skin. She shivered slightly.  
  
Pulling open the refrigerator door, she allowed the dog demon to inspect its contents. A plethora of scents bombarded his keen sense of smell. Each and every smell was different and new to him; he had never smelled such a wondrous mix. He was suddenly on his guard.  
  
"What is all this?" he demanded.  
  
Kagome gazed at him with a hint of pity in her eyes. He still clung to the old ways, never trusting anyone or anything. "It's all food, Sesshoumaru," she answered quietly, "Choose whatever you like."  
  
He eyed all the foods and settled for some cold tenpura. She removed the dish from the refrigerator and heated it in the microwave. Sesshoumaru bristled and growled at it. Kagome patiently explained what the contraption was. After the timer went off, she served it to him.  
  
"Eat it," she urged, "You are still recovering."  
  
The dog demon gave her a patronizing stare. "I, Sesshoumaru, am already healed."  
  
"Oh. . ." Kagome said. "I remember now. But it's been so long. . ." she whispered, sighing wistfully.  
  
Sesshoumaru stabbed a piece of tenpura with a claw and sniffed it before licking it. He tasted the flavor, then bit into it. Liking it, he ate more.  
  
"Sesshoumaru?" asked Kagome after a long, thoughtful silence on her part. "What are you going to do now? How are you going to live?"  
  
The demon lord thought for a moment. "I will do as I have always done."  
  
"But they will kill you! You know because of what happened yesterday!" she protested.  
  
"So what do you suggest?" he shot back.  
  
"Well," started the priestess, "You have two options. One: adapt. Learn to live like a human, assimilate into human culture. If you need to, you can live here, with me. Or two: isolate yourself. Stay away from all human contact. Disappear from the world; hide away. Otherwise you will most surely be hunted down and captured to be experimented on. I don't want that to happen to you. Choose one or the other."  
  
His golden eyes narrowed. "You cannot command this Sesshoumaru to do anything."  
  
"I'm not commanding you to do anything. I just want you to be safe," she murmured. Secretly she wanted him to stay- she wanted, longed, to speak of the old times. But she was not about to tell him that.  
  
By now Sesshoumaru had finished eating and they were resting in Kagome's room.  
  
"Why do you bother?" Sesshoumaru asked suddenly, fixing his stare on her.  
  
"Because. . ." stuttered the young woman, "Because. . . I care."  
  
The dog demon took some time to process this. No one since Rin and Jaken had cared for his wellbeing. 'She is more like Rin than I want to admit,' he thought.  
  
"I will give my decision in three days' time," he stated, "By which I will expect my clothes to be cleaned." Then, in a blur of white, he was gone.  
  
Kagome walked to the window, which was previously closed, but now wide open. She leaned against the sill and whispered into the night, "Whatever you decide, Sesshoumaru, be safe."  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
FT: Konnichiwa, minna-san! This is a strange piece in my opinion. -_-;;;  
  
Sesshoumaru: And since _when_ did your opinion count?  
  
Kagome: Never. . . ^_^  
  
FT: *sarcastically* You two are _so_ funny! _ Anyways, this has an open end. I will not continue it, but if you wish to, go ahead and continue it. But please, email/IM me saying you wish to continue and send your story to me when you are done; I'd love to see what you thing would happen! And please, credit me for the beginning if you post it. Ja!!  
  
~*~*~*~ 


End file.
